Developer: Crasleen Games
Publisher: Crasleen Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Warbanners – Review
Developed and published by Crasleen Games comes Warbanners, a tactical turn-based strategy game with RPG elements. Warbanners is the first game to be developed as well as published by Crasleen Games. The game provides a divine combination of real time strategy and role playing game elements. So being their first ever game and coming forth with a unique combination of multiple genres could either mean their rise or their fall.
Story
In the game you play as Roderick, commanding a company of mercenaries throughout the game’s campaign consisting out of 42 main and side missions. You’ll be playing the role of Roderick which means you’ll be assembling, altering and levelling up the team in-between missions and leading them to victory in them. Roderick and the group of mercenaries’ main goal is to reach fame and fortune. Picking different answers for certain questions can alter your karma changing the story on many levels for example the enemies you’ll get to face.
Story wise the game doesn’t deliver too badly, but there is way more fun in just playing the battles than reading the massive text blocks. Although you’re quite often given the opportunity to make choices altering the battles at hand. Sometimes your decision makes it even so you don’t have to battle at all. So if you really want the battle to be in your favour you should read it but if you don’t care about having the upper hand and like a good challenge and a solid gamble, just click whatever you feel like clicking. Battles can get quite tense sowhether you play on easy, normal, or hard, reading is always the best way in further continuing the game.
Graphics
For what it’s worth the game looks ok. It doesn’t have the almighty graphics everyone is used to nowadays but a strategy game doesn’t need them to have a great experience. Not that the game looks awful but they kept the graphics on a basic level which makes it so that the game runs very smoothly and doesn’t have long and boring loading screens.
The ancient graphics make the game look bland, dark and grey. With fire and a few flowers here and there being the only bits of colour you’ll see playing the game. You’ll definitely be disappointed if you’re looking for a delight to the eye.
During battles you’re provided with a top down view of your band of mercenaries giving you the full advantage of clearly seeing the entire battleground. This top down view gives you the advantage of seeing all enemies, obstacles and the sides enemies are coming from.
Sound
The sound in the game makes you truly feel like you’re in a medieval siege. But that’s just the only positive thing about it, because for some reason the game is just limited to one song in the menus and one song in the battles. Strategy games are really fun when the battle turns either in your favour or not and the music adapts, but in Warbanners you’ll get the same action packed soundtrack over and over again. During battles you’ll have the sound for hitting an enemy, which is also the same whether the blow is dealt with a sword or an arrow. Stuff like flasks of liquid fire do have a unique sound upon explosion which is a logical thing to do but when you’re constantly hearing either the sword/arrow sound, or the I-have-missed-again-sound, it’s fun to hear a different sound than the ones you’re yet accustomed to.
Gameplay
Warbanners is a turn-based strategy RPG. Definitely not the best out there but its battles can be fun from time to time. The recurring RPG elements make it so that the game somehow has a bit of a story in it. Should you choose to just skip the blocks of text you would be missing the entire story. As mentioned above these do affect the battles either in your favour, turn the tide against you or some choices have the outcome of no battle at all. Doing the side missions before going further in the game’s main missions also affect further battles. These consequences involve other or a different amount of enemies to be spawn.
Furthermore the game handles quite well and after five to ten battles you’ll be used to the hotkeys, having you fit to go on another five to ten battles. After that, difficulty strikes. It doesn’t even matter which difficulty you’re on, completing the game will somehow always feel like a real challenge. Strategy games really need a solid tactic and a certain knowhow, everyone knows that, but the sad fact is that , even if you do show up with one of the most brilliant strategies ever seen, you’ll still end up with all characters dead because whatever you do they miss their hits over and over again.
In the beginning you’ll be fine with your characters missing and dying from time to time but as you progress throughout the campaign and the battles or sieges become more difficult resurrecting starts to cost more and more as well. These misses are such a pain and make the battles last way longer then they even should. It’s not something you can’t get rid of though as every time a character levels up you’ll get to choose one out of three stats to level up by one or a few points (accuracy often being one of them, but not always).
At certain levels, certain characters, will also be able to learn certain skills e.g. at level five a swordsman will be given the possibility to learn the dig skill which is a very handy skill that can alter the battlefield in your favour. Completing battles or providing a successful answer often leaves you with a piece of gear. These pieces provide your chosen characters with stat boosts.
Aside from battles and massive text lines, you’re also able to assemble and adapt your own company of mercenaries. You’ll start with regular swordsmen and bowmen but the further you progress in the campaign the more different characters you’ll be able to add to your team. Also, continuing the campaign unlocks more mercenary slots as well. Not only does completing battles unlock characters but hiring a certain assistant can unlock certain characters as well. These assistants come in various shapes and sizes. For example you can hire one, as said before, to be able to add dwarf mercenaries to your company or you can hire one to add a morale boost to your company at the beginning of a battle. To finish off there’s one more thing you should keep in mind before blasting straight through the game’s campaign: spend your coins wisely because if you get stuck in a battle there’s no way whatsoever to backtrack and complete a previously completed battle.
Conclusion
Warbanners is an ok game, definitely not the best strategy game in our universe but if you’re really fond of games in which you’ll have to come up with a nice strategy, giving it a go is not a bad decision although after a while strategies become just a mere detail. Warbanners looks ancient but alright and besides missing all the time the battles can be really exciting but perhaps you might want to consider playing the game with a music playlist of your own liking, or a playlist full of medieval music for that matter, if you don’t want to get put away in a mental asylum after six hours in.
No Comments